


I will find you in the Rue

by KeanBlade



Series: Kindling on fire [4]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Drabble, I don't know how to tag this, Multi, alternate universe - modern sifi, no beta we die like men, not active
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-17
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:07:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21568885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KeanBlade/pseuds/KeanBlade
Summary: He looked up through the haze of power (Danzo was backing away, a look of deep trepidation on his face- good, forcing Tobirama to do this was insane, probably the blowback would kill all of them and take most of the building with it if Tobirama lost control) at Mito, meeting her eyes over it in apology- he couldn’t go back, and he knew she wouldn’t want to- but, she smiled a little and twisted suddenly, lunging into the array hands already twisting in signs and her soul chains spilling out to form a seal shape over her head before one snapped out and wrapped around Tobirama dragging him to the center with her. “Mito” he gasped, and she grinned, wild and raw “Fuck all of them, if we’re taking this building down I want to know where this sucker is going to spit us out.” He stared at her as power built before laughing a wild and letting his own power twist and writhe around them, he had an idea, a mad, mad, idea. but what did they have to lose? Why not try time travel?
Relationships: Senju Hashirama/Uzumaki Mito, Senju Tobirama/Uchiha Madara
Series: Kindling on fire [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1531886
Comments: 13
Kudos: 120





	1. taste the bitter pill

**Author's Note:**

> Wildly AU in every way. Inspired by raspberry  
> "Tobirama and Madara are actually from different time periods, and madara is like this King of old. And Tobirama is not exactly a history buff, but everyone knows how the king fell in love with one of his gaurds, a fierce warrior, and how they courted each other for months before the gaurd vanished on the day of their wedding. And stricken with grief the king died shortly after taking his own life.  
> When of Tobirama's experiments backfires and sends him back in time, he decides not to change anything. Except in a weird twist of fate he ends up being the King's gaurd and he starts to really admire him "read have a big dorky crush" so he just decides to change one tiny thing. He will make sure that the king lives a happy long life, he just has to find the idiot gaurd who stole the King's heart and make sure he never does this time."
> 
> and then it got strange, so yes, jutsu has fussed with alchemy and then Tobirama sort of turned into Harley Quuin from Suicide Squad, so...... yeah

Tobirama was…. annoyed. That was a good word for it. annoyed. This set of experiments were just _fucking_ stupid and if the General asked him _one more fucking time_ if it was finished he was walking the fuck out of here. He sat back wiping at his forehead with a chalk covered hand- fucking alchemy- and stared at the seal array on the floor, it wasn’t enough to do what the General wanted but he was _done_ for today so the old man could just suck it as far as Tobirama was concerned, he wanted to go home. Or, well, not go home, but just not be here anymore and- he took a deep breath, trying to ignore the way it shook; he was doing this for a reason, it would be worth it, it had to be worth it. “Tobirama?” a soft voice called, and he forced his back to straighten and his face into something calm and steady “Mito, I thought you left already.” The redhead smiled a little, a tense expression that sat too familiarly on her lovely face, “You should know I wouldn’t leave without you, honestly Tobirama, it’s like you’ve forgotten we have to finish our book.” He grimaced biting back a growl of annoyance, cameras might not work in a casting chamber, but microphones definitely did, for Mito to be pulling out code… “Alright Red, give me a minuet to wash my hands.” He said and she nodded glancing over his work as he walked past, her eyebrows going up as she got a good look and sending him a shocked look; he shook his head as slightly as he could, she blew out a slow breath but didn’t argue and followed him out into the night, slipping on to her motorcycle as Tobirama settled himself behind her and they blasted through the city’s too bright lights (Tobirama missed when the night was actually the _night_ , missed knowing- mattering- what time of day it was, what season, but those days were gone now for years).

Mito pulled the helmet off, releasing a flood of sunset colored hair to spill over her shoulders as he led the way into his Spartan apartment, once upon a time it would have been filled with books and little trinkets from his trips all over the world but now… now it was little more than a place to sleep at night for all its rich top of the line appliances; the only mark of habitation a small pile of paperback books stacked next to the couch- he slept there almost more than his bed, Mito normally taking that when she came over which was most nights at this point-. Mito smiled to see them- as she always did- and brushed her fingers over the top one, “Still reading these? I know you have them memorized” he shot her a dirty look for the teasing in her voice and she smiled wider, some of the stress fading off her face as she teased him “I know you think that King Madara Uchiha is _hot_ -“ “I don’t think he’s hot!” he said, unable not to rise to the bait as he always was “I just…. He was a good king, and sometimes I just wish that- well. that we had a leader like that I guess, or that he had lived long enough to make things better, maybe then things wouldn’t be the way they are now.” He couldn’t keep the melancholy out of his voice and Mito’s smile slid away.

“Still asking the impossible?” she asked quietly and Tobirama threw himself down on the couch next to her “No. I mean… not quite, I know I can do it, but Mito… if I create a gate like that I’ll be the only person that can power it, it’s too complex to teach anyone else especially when it will have to be based off of my chakra coils, if you wanted to do it you would have to start all over, if it even worked” Mito’s face pinched, she was smart, very smart, but she wasn’t Tobirama, if he said no one else could do it she believed him “and that means that I would have to stand there and hold open a gate for the General to poor troops though, I would be _directly_ responsible for thousands of deaths. As it is we’re as much in a dead lock with Sunna as we always have been but a gate… it would change everything.” His voice was tired and conflicted, and Mito didn’t know what to say. Tobirama had always had… trouble with knowing when things were morally ok, he existed in a gray area that made it difficult sometimes for him to know how to act- it was part of what had led to the General having so much power over him to begin with- and he _craved_ having someone who could just _tell_ him what the right thing to do was, just tell him where the boundaries were. As much as she teased him she was fairly sure that as half his love of King Madara; he was no historian but he always had been drawn to the tales about the Fireborn-King, the king that _cared_ and did what was right but not in the name of some ideal that Tobirama couldn’t understand or fight for, but because he cared about his people and wanted those he loved safe, like Tobirama did, just with the sense of morals he felt he lacked.

“If you don’t give him what he wants…” she said softly, he snorted, dropping his head back to look at the celling, “I know, but honestly Mito, I’d rather go back in that fucking cell then stare at his dumbass equations for the next year and try to tell him that alchemy or jutsu or whatever the hell he wants to call it doesn’t work the way he wants it too and that I can’t just wave may hand and make it work.” She bumped his shoulder with hers “That’s what you get for getting a reputation as the most powerful seal-array alchemist oh, White Dragon of the west.” He groaned deeply “I hate that name,” he whined before cracking an eye at her “not like you’re much better Many-tailed Fox, the only thing is that you never got yourself locked in prison” she sniffed, sticking her nose in the air haughtily “Never got thrown in prison _yet_ , give me time Dragon.” He laughed, deep and only a little bitter so Mito counted it a success. In truth both of them knew that what awaited if (when) they refused to give the General what he wanted was much worse than a little time locked away even in the high max vault they had placed Tobirama in (she had seen it once, a large sealed covered cadge with only one solid wall and a celling made of bars, it was barren and cold and utterly exposed she knew from the pictures she had seen that he had used his sheets to hang from the ceiling, knew he had maintained flexibility and strength through aerial routines, knew he had done it in part because it freaked people out, knew that he had nightmares of it, knew that things worse than that awaited them ~~if~~ when they didn’t bend).

She reach over plucking one of the books off the pile and peered at the cover before snickering, “You’re reading this one? Really?! oh my god Tobi” he twisted, saw what was in her hand and groaned deeply covering his face and not doing anything to stop her “oh my god _The Story of the Fireborn-King and his great Love_ and the blurb, holly shit ‘ _the story of the Fireborn-King- also called Susanoo- and his dragon guard is the most famous love story in history, the tale of the proud passionate King who fell so deeply in love with his most tiresome guard that he would have forsaken all others! And the guard’s love for his king was so great he defeated whole armies for his king! It is a story of two true lovers torn asunder by death and mystery! No one knows what happened to the dragon guard when he disappeared, but all rumors of unfaithfulness were struck down- it is said that there was never anything clearer than their immortal love for each other- and in the end King Madara took his own life rather than live without his great love! Leaving the throne to his sworn blood brother Hashirama instead, unable to carry the weight of the kingdom without his lover!_ Tobi- _Tobi_ -“ she wheezed, laughing too hard to speak as she waved the book; Tobirama buried his head in a pillow, refusing to look at her as she laughed “ _Fuck off_.” He hissed.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she said (“ _no you’re not_ ” he muttered sullenly) “but you have to admit it’s a terrible book.” He groaned again but peaked out at her from behind his pillow with a sigh, pouting at her for a minute before lowering it “Yeah, fine, it’s _awful_ , so, so, bad. I _was_ hoping to find something new, but all the author writes about it how ‘The king _Susanoo’_ s hair blew in the wind like a banner of coal and his faithful servant watched it with tears in his eyes!’ it’s _bad_. Too bad to even be funny after a while. Which is annoying because everyone knows the story about how the King fell in love and then killed himself when his lover disappeared, so I had hoped for something interesting, but it’s just a pile of drivel.” She snickered at his pout “Oh honey, I could have told you that, look at this shit!” she opened her mouth to read more of it, so he did the adult thing and stuck his tongue out at her.

( _“what were you worried about earlier? Why the code to go home?” sigh “I…. the Captain is asking questions again, I know you hate spreading rumors but if I go home with you, well, there are a lot of people that will hesitate to do anything if they think it will piss you off. As for the other… they asked me to start binding the minds of soldiers” “cannon fodder” “unthinking, every kind of freedom torn from them”_ )

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I write fast and don't edit much- this is a place for me to not have to worry too much about perfection and just enjoy it- so things can be mangled at times. (I've got a wonky brain that can't see symbols as well, so I frequently can't even see mistakes) That's not something that's likely to change any time soon, so if imperfect writing puts you off this probably isn't for you


	2. dusty sliding down

Morning came too early as it always did, rising sun slanting straight into Tobirama’s eyes and making him whine in pain at the always sensitive hurt, Mito- slumped heavily- against his side stirred a little “Tobi?” he sighed and patted her red hair, “Time to get up Hime” he muttered, “I don’t know about you but I want something to eat before we are expected at the labs” she grumbled and burrowed deeper into his arm before withdrawing with a sigh and shoving her hair back. Tobirama snorted as he went to start coffee before getting in the shower; by the time he came out, redressed in the boring utilitarian clothing he wore to the labs, Mito was poking around in his kitchen clutching a cup of coffee like it was gold dust; he shook his head and shoved he towards the shower- she had long since started keeping clothing here- and turned to the task of making food with the spare basics in his kitchen, really it was a good thing he knew how to cook or they would have gone hungry a lot. The trip to the labs was silent not only from exhaustion but from the mounting tension in both of them, there was a looming feeling that this was going to be the day it all fell apart and Tobirama had long since learned to trust his gut with things like this, had he done so years ago he might never have ended up locked in prison for five years by his former apprentice (he should have known better than to train Danzo, the man had only been a couple of years younger but had not had Tobirama’s brilliance and he had thought – had thought that Danzo wanted to know just to know, thought that Danzo cared about him. learning otherwise had _hurt_.).

“Do you think they’ll notice if I spend the day in your lab?” Mito asked him softly as the entered to building, he glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes, “As long as you bring some of your work I don’t see why they should, it’s not like you need anything that special.” She nodded and smiled brightly, darting off to her area. Tobirama sighed, all humor draining from him as he faced his work, the seal-array had been left untouched as always but it’s incompletion taunted him; his curiosity and inability to leave a project unfinished had hurt things before- himself and others- but this was the worst thing he had ever been called upon to do and he was… trying not to let the lure of knowledge pull him off course (for so long knowledge had been his shield and his sword, the only protection he had when times were hard and his only solace when loneliness ate at him. but he had Mito now, he wasn’t alone ~~for now~~ ~~she would be taken away for him, his heart sister, when they failed to do what the General wanted~~ ). It was an hour later when he heard Mito slip into the room on quiet feet, going to one of his tables to set up her own work and they worked companionably for hours before he heard booted feet in the corridor and forced his spine not to stiffen even as the door opened; he stayed there, focused on the array and refusing to acknowledge the increasingly shifty guards and the man with them (he took a deep satisfaction from knowing that they feared him, Mito had called him White Dragon but he had been called White Demon just as often and these men _feared_ him; they knew how many he had killed when they went to bring him in).

“Senju.” The man in the suit barked officiously “Come over here.” Tobirama looked up lazily, standing the graceful slide of movement that he knew always frightened people and watching the short plain man with cold hard eyes; “Danzo, how… nice of you to visit me.” the man reddened at the slight in Tobirama’s voice as the albino had known he would, spluttering as Tobirama stepped off the array and over to the sink to was his hands. “You-!” to the Senju’s mild disappointment the younger man caught himself and forced his voice to calm, Tobirama had rather hoped to provoke him into a rage again, it was always satisfying and left him so embarrassed latter, very much worth the occasional beating he got from it. “The General wants to see your work” he spat officiously- an interesting combination- “how far have you made it to completing the gate?” Tobirama raised a cool eyebrow, unimpressed “I have kept the General appraised of my progress, there should be nothing knew that he needs to know from me in this project. But if you wish to see it go ahead, surely you can decipher it quite well, State Alchemist.” Danzo went red again but took the bait and stepped forward, stocking around the seal with a look of deep concentration that quickly shaded into confusion “This part is nonsense, you don’t need this balancing matrix to use a warp vector symbol!” Tobirama tipped his head to the side inquiringly “And why do you think I don’t?” “I don’t know it!” Tobirama smirked, just a little “Surely you don’t think I taught you _everything_ I knew do you? I am a seal master; we never give all our secrets away.”

The naked fury on Danzo’s face was less satisfying than Tobirama expected, maybe he was growing up, had to happen sometime “Prove it!” Danzo snarled nastily, Tobirama couldn’t help his surprise at that “You want me to open an untested array so that you can prove that a symbol combination isn’t necessary?” he asked slowly, glancing at a tense Mito. Danzo smiled “Are you refusing?” he asked nastily and Tobirama frowned a little “No, but I _know_ I taught you better than that, surly you see how bad an idea this is?” the guards shifted uncertainly and Danzo’s look got a little mad at the edges (how had he ever thought that this man was a good apprentice? That he cared) and he stomped around the seal-array to one of the guards, moving with unexpected speed to pull out his blacked out gun and point it as Mito as another guard stepped up to hold her still; Tobirama knew Mito was perfectly capable of defending herself, but only if she could mover her hands and surprise had left her vulnerable. “Are you threatening her?” he asked slowly, Danzo’s mean little smile didn’t fade “If you don’t activate that seal I’ll kill her, honestly the General is sick of how slowly her work is progressing, we have enough that we could pass it off to someone else anyway” fool, Mito was the best in her field as he was in his, killing her would be a waste- but the General had never cared about that very much had he?- “you’re on thin ice as well Demon, keep dragging your feet and you’ll find yourself back in a cadge like a rat with nowhere to hide - unless you enjoyed that freak?” Tobirama forced himself not to stiffen, he had to remain calm, but… his eyes tracked to Mito, her lips pressed together firmly as she looked at him.

“Very well” he murmured softly, turning to the seal and walking to the activation circle, kneeling there and pouring chakra into it like a waterfalls rush, standing slowly as the power rushed out of him; the seal shone as though filled with diamond dust, it’s power making the stone floor warp and flex. He looked up through the haze of power (Danzo was backing away, a look of deep trepidation on his face- good, forcing Tobirama to do this was insane, probably the blowback would kill all of them and take most of the building with it if Tobirama lost control) at Mito, meeting her eyes over it in apology- he couldn’t go back, and he knew she wouldn’t want to- but, she smiled a little and twisted suddenly, lunging into the array hands already twisting in signs and her soul chains spilling out to form a seal shape over her head before one snapped out and wrapped around Tobirama dragging him to the center with her. “ _Mito_ ” he gasped, and she grinned, wild and raw “Fuck all of them, if we’re taking this building down I want to know where this sucker is going to spit us out.” He stared at her as power built before laughing a wild and letting his own power twist and writhe around them, he had an idea, a mad, _mad_ , idea. but what did they have to lose? Why _not_ try time travel?

( _“hey, maybe well find your sweetheart Tobi, who knows where we’ll come out” “Fuck off Mito” “focus on him! think of your temporally displaced Great Love!” “FUCK OFF Mito”_ )


End file.
